A PROMINENT Chester businessman refused to pay a fixed penalty when he was caught using his mobile phone while driving.
Stopped by police, Stephen Wundke, who runs the Groves restaurant, denied the offence and allegedly said: 'Well, that will make up for all the times I have used my phone and not been stopped.'
Wundke, of Five Ashes Road, Westminster Park, was not present at his trial on Monday but issued a statement saying officers were mistaken and that he was using a legal, hands-free set.
Officers spotted Wundke using the phone when driving in Grosvenor Street on October 21 last year.
PC Stephen Hannam said: 'We were travelling along Grosvenor Street in the direction of Pepper Street when I saw on the opposite side of the road a black Mitsubishi 4X4.
'The male driver was holding a mobile phone to his right ear and talking into it as the vehicle was moving.'
'We followed the vehicle across the roundabout on to Grosvenor Bridge and stopped it.'
Wundke, who is also chairman of Chester Food and Drink Festival, got out of the vehicle and was issued with a £30 fixed penalty, which he declined to take.
When PC Hannam and his colleague, PC Robert Lawrence, questioned him about the fact he was talking he replied: 'I was talking to my Spanish CD.'
When issuing his statement to the court, Wundke also submitted a guilty plea.
But prosecutor Carolyn Viviani said it amounted to an equivocal guilty plea and a trial must still be carried out in his absence.
The defendant had been present during the morning of the trial at Northwich Magistrates Court but due to some confusion as to whether it was to take place in Chester, the trial was postponed until the after noon.
Wundke was issued with a £60 fine and ordered to pay £60 in court costs.
